The Mindful Path to Addiction Recovery: A Practical Guide to Regaining Control over Your Lifeby Lawrence PeltzPosted by: DailyOM

Mindfulness, the quality of attention that combines full awareness with acceptance of each moment, just as it is, is gaining broad acceptance among mental health professionals as an adjunct to treatment. Because at the heart of addiction is the fear of painful emotional states, addicts compulsively seek drugs and alcohol to avoid or escape emotional pain. Mindfulness, on the other hand, helps us develop greater acceptance and ease with life’s challenges, as well as greater self-compassion.

Here, Dr. Lawrence Peltz, who has worked as an addiction psychiatrist for nearly three decades, draws from his clinical experience and on the techniques of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to explain the fundamental dynamics of addiction and the stages of the recovery process, and also gives us specific mindfulness exercises to support recovery.

EXCERPT

Roger completed day treatment after an alcohol detox and many years of drinking. He was committed to recovery and was able to stay sober until he became involved with a much younger woman he had met in the program. He relapsed with her, they ended badly, and he was back for another round of treatment, during which he learned something about his vulnerability in romantic relationships.

When Roger came back for a third time, it was not about drinking but gambling. He had been playing the slot machines regularly and, as a retiree on a fixed income, was courting financial ruin. Driving to the casino, Roger experienced the excitement and anticipation of winning, the fear of losing even more, the dread of facing his creditors, and a wish to escape what he eventually was able to identify as loneliness and desperation. His foray into gambling had begun much like his relationship with the young woman, his drinking, or any addictive process. Initially, he had a sense of power, a rigged game in which he felt in love, one up on everyone, no limits, totally in control of the situation.

Let’s focus on the experience of falling in love. At the outset the lover is perfect in looks, reactions, speech—a missing piece to complete us and fill us with the miracle of life and of our amazing fortune to have found this person. In fact, we often do fall in love with our opposite, or what Hal and Sidra Stone have called our “disowned part.”

Think of the attraction between the hard-driving, successful, somewhat obsessional man and the free-flowing, flirtatious woman. He loves her openness, creativity, ease with her sexuality, and she is drawn to his confidence, power, and organization. All is well until the honeymoon is over and it is necessary to engage in the business of life with the other person. Then, she or he is less perfect, annoying, and even impossible to communicate with at times. If mutual judgment proceeds unchecked, the couple will get further apart—not an uncommon outcome. But with time, patience, and maturity, differences can be accepted and love deepens. It is no longer fantasy driven and is far more enduring and workable.

When we fall in love with a substance like cocaine or alcohol, there is also a sense of feeling complete and perfected. Addicts have repeatedly described an experience of infinite power and of being “unstoppable.” Once the glow is gone, however, there is no negotiation and, suddenly, significant constraints. The drug, in a true bait and switch, now demands enormous attention and time. As the addiction proceeds, it brings diminishing returns in terms of pleasure and costs increasingly more in money, relationships, health, and safety.

Of course we know there is no hope of discussing or bargaining with a drug, but there is more here than meets the eye. A disease process has begun that is progressive and takes over our ability to think clearly. Much as HIV infection attacks the immune system that is needed to defeat it, addiction compromises our brain and emotional capacities. As the addictive process evolves, there is a progressive atrophy of maturity and clarity.